Apollo's Psyche-Locks
by EmeraldWings1992
Summary: Direct sequel to "Turnabout Escape". Apollo's been having nightmares since being reunited with his father after twenty-three years, and Trucy decides to get Phoenix to get to the bottom of it! But when Phoenix breaks Apollo's black Psyche-Locks, does he help the young man, or traumatize him forever? ONE-SHOT!


A/N: Soooo… this idea just popped up in my head while I was writing the first chapter of _"The Scientific Turnabout_ ". It's a one-shot, direct sequel to " _Turnabout Escape_ ", addressing something that I neglected, since Phoenix was on his honeymoon with Maya most of that story.

It's a few months after " _Turnabout Escape_ ", in January

Here we go!

…

Apollo's Psyche-Locks

"Thanks again for letting me spend the night, Polly!" Trucy said brightly. Apollo looked over at his sister from where he was settling into his nest of blankets on the floor.

"No problem. But why aren't you at Fey Manor? You never told me," he asked, talking about her new home in the mountain village of Kurain.

Her and Phoenix moved there after the wedding, since the Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique technically couldn't move _away_ from the village.

"I have to be at the stadium early tomorrow. Too early to bother with the trains," she explained.

"Ah."

"Well, good night, Polly! Love you, big bro," she said, settling more into the couch, Apollo's normal bed.

You tend to make sacrifices when all you can afford is a small studio apartment. Apollo laughed at that.

"Good night, Truce," he said, standing and switching off the light before settling back down again, soon falling asleep.

…

"No… no…"

"Hm?" Trucy lifted her head slightly, rubbing one hand sleepily across her eyes.

A whimpering sound from across the room caught her attention, and she lifted her head more, looking at the pile of blankets that was her brother.

"Polly?" she called slightly.

"…Daddy…" he gasped in his sleep, tossing and turning, getting more and more tangled in the blankets.

 _He's having a nightmare!_ Trucy realized, standing and padding over to the older boy. Light from his window penetrated the blinds, falling across Apollo's face, and Trucy gasped in surprise.

Apollo was crying.

"Apollo, wake up, wake up!" Trucy called, falling to her knees next to the boy and shaking his shoulder, lightly at first, then more violently. Apollo resisted for a moment longer before shooting up, nearly knocking heads with his sister.

"DADDY!" he cried, grasping at his blankets, his eyes huge and scared. The suddenness and loudness of the cry startled Trucy, and she fell back with a squeak, watching her brother.

Apollo's face, after a moment longer, morphed from terrified to confused, and he looked down at his hands clenching his blanket.

"…Huh?"

"A-Apollo?" Trucy asked wearily. Apollo looked up, confusion still evident in his eyes.

"Trucy? Did I wake you?" he asked, and even the terror that had laced his voice when he had cried out was gone.

Trucy starred at him, suddenly realizing how tired and pale he's looked recently.

No, not just recently.

Ever since case EF-11, the murder of Valant Gramarye. The case where Apollo was reunited with his father.

"Trucy?" he called when she didn't answer.

"Yeah, you did," she replied, answering his earlier question with a smile. "But it's okay. Do you want to talk about it?"

"About what?"

"Um… your nightmare."

"Oh. Uh, gee, Trucy, I would, but… I don't remember it," Apollo admitted truthfully. Trucy stared at him for a moment.

"You don't… remember it?" she asked.

"No. Not at all…"

There was a sudden knock on the door, causing the siblings to jump.

"I'll get it," Trucy said, standing and going over before Apollo could say a word. Opening the door, she found sweet, old Mrs. Jenkins, Apollo's neighbor, in a bathrobe, looking worried.

"Mrs. Jenkins?" Trucy asked.

"Oh, my, I didn't realize you spent the night," the old woman fretted, looking over Trucy's shoulder to where Apollo sat. She then looked back at Trucy. "Actually… can I talk to you for a moment?" she asked the young magician.

"Um, sure?" Trucy said, stepping out into the apartment hallway and closing the door behind her. "I'm sorry for his yelling—"

"That's just it, sweetie," Mrs. Jenkins said, cutting her off. "It hasn't just been tonight."

"It hasn't?" Trucy asked, wondering if this was going to confirm her suspicions.

"No. Oh, it must have started around Halloween…" the older woman sighed worriedly. She liked Apollo. He could get a little loud, what with his voice training, but he was such a kind young man, always helping her up the steps, or carrying groceries in… He even offered to, and actually did, take care of her three cats when she had to go out of town to visit family, despite all three of the cats hating him. "In the middle of the night, he'll start screaming for his father, startling me and my babies awake," she explained. "And he won't talk about his nightmares either…"

Trucy frowned worriedly at that, though a tiny part of her mind was surprised that this little old lady hasn't had a heart attack, being startled awake in the middle of the night.

"As for the not talking… he doesn't remember them. When he just woke up, he looked scared for only a few seconds before looking really confused," Trucy explained.

"Ah. His mind must be blocking something when he's awake. These nightmares must be a subconscious memory," the old woman said wisely.

 _A subconscious memory? Like… black Psyche-Locks!?_ Trucy thought. She then smiled up at Mrs. Jenkins.

"Don't worry, ma'am. I think I have just the thing to help Polly," she said confidently. Mrs. Jenkins laughed at that.

"Thank you, Trucy. Lord knows your brother needs his sleep, what with all of those dangerous situations he's always finding himself in," she said before shuffling back over to her apartment door, right next to Apollo's.

"Good night, Mrs. Jenkins," Trucy called.

"Good night," she called back. Trucy nodded to herself with a smile before turning and going back in, only to find Apollo asleep already.

 _Mrs. Jenkins was right. He does need his sleep._

…

"Daddy!" Trucy called as she walked into the elaborate, Japanese styled manor. It had been a long day, preparing for tomorrow's show, and all she wanted to do was sleep, but she was too wound up and worried about Apollo to even consider taking a nap before talking to the only person she knew who could help her brother.

"In here!" Phoenix called from a small room acted as his study. She peeked in and smiled when seeing Phoenix sitting at a desk, working on some papers.

"What's that?" she asked, going over and trying to read the paper upside down. Phoenix chuckled.

"Just filing some paperwork for the Dasher case," he told her.

"Ah."

Phoenix looked up at his daughter, noticing the slight bags under her eyes.

"Don't tell me you kept Apollo up all night last night," Phoenix said, before noticing the worry mixed in to the tiredness. "What's wrong?"

"It's actually about Apollo and last night," she admitted with a sigh, sitting on the edge of her desk.

"Is he okay?" Phoenix asked.

"I… I don't know. He had a pretty bad nightmare last night. According to his neighbor, he's been having them since… since Halloween," Trucy admitted. "And when I asked him if he wanted to talk about it, he told me he didn't remember it. At all."

"I see where this is going," Phoenix said, suddenly realizing. "You think he's in the same boat Athena had been. That he has black Psyche-Locks."

"Yeah. And Daddy, I think he's having these nightmares because of the memory being suppressed. I think he needs to face it before he can get over… whatever happened..." Trucy said. Phoenix sighed softly at that.

"Trucy, it won't be that easy," he said.

"But you break Psyche-Locks all the time!"

"Black ones are different. A black Psyche-Lock protects a secret from the deepest place in a person's heart. A secret that the person isn't even consciously aware of, as you guessed. For some reason, a part of Apollo's heart and his memories are sealed off, even from himself. Think of it as a heavy chain wrapped directly around his heart." Phoenix sighed. "If I were to rip it off by force, like I do with normal Psyche-Locks, then I could cause permanent damage to Apollo's soul. In other words, if I'm not careful, I could traumatize Apollo for good, rather then helping him."

Trucy gasped, thinking about that. Apollo, despite these nightmares, was so _happy_ now, now that he had his entire family together. What if Phoenix made one wrong move, and it hurt Apollo, rather then help him?

Then she realized how tired Apollo looked, and how fast he fell asleep last night.

Happy or not, he needed sleep. Uninterrupted, peaceful sleep.

"Daddy… you have to try," she said. Phoenix nodded.

"I didn't say I wasn't going to. I was just saying that it wasn't going to be easy. Just… give me a day or two to do a little research, okay?"

"Okay!" Trucy said happily, hopping down from the desk and kissing Phoenix's forehead before darting out, her cape flowing behind her. Phoenix smiled warmly after her, shaking his head.

…

Apollo grumbled as he scrubbed at the plates in his sink, regretting not cleaning them right away after dinner the night Trucy slept over, two days ago. Food stuck to them like superglue, and it was taking all of his strength to scrape it off.

 _Knock-knock-knock_

Apollo stopped from his grumbling and looked over at the door.

"Who is it?" he called, shutting off the water so that he could hear.

"It's me, Phoenix!" the visitor replied. Apollo shook his head, turning back to his dishes.

"Come in!"

The older man stepped in, dressed down, rather then in his suit. Ever since the days of wearing nothing but a hoodie and jeans, Apollo has noticed that Phoenix liked to dress down when not at work. Thankfully, though, he didn't wear the blue beanie, and he kept himself clean shaven, so he didn't look like a total hobo.

"Hey, Mr. Wright, what's up?" Apollo asked, attempting to scrape the remnants of mac and cheese off of one of the plate. It refused to budge. Phoenix came over and chuckled.

"Why don't you fill up your sink with water and let them soak? That'll make the scraping easier," he suggested. Apollo's eyebrows pulled together, and he mumbled something, but none-the-less, he put the stopper in and began to fill up the sink. It was obvious he hadn't thought of that.

He then turned to the older attorney. "So, what's up?" he repeated. It wasn't often that Phoenix came to Apollo's apartment, so he was curious.

"Trucy told me about what happened the other night," Phoenix said, starting out delicately, leaning against the tiny dinning room table. He had an idea of what this memory probably was, but he needed to be sure, which meant he had to pick his words carefully.

"Huh?"

"Apollo… was that nightmare about your father's accident?" Phoenix asked, hoping this was the trigger. Apollo's eyes grew wide, and he stepped back.

To Phoenix, everything but himself and Apollo faded to black. Chains began to surround the young man, and five, cold, black Psyche-Locks slammed into place. Apollo wrapped his arms around himself.

"Wh-what…?" he managed to stammer, and Phoenix could hear the trembling in his voice.

 _Bingo_ , the older man thought. _And that memory is already close to the surface. No doubt because of Zeus reappearing and watching him on stage…_

"Apollo, Trucy said Mrs. Jenkins is worried about you. You wake up crying for you dad every night…"

One of the locks shifted. Apollo flinched, like he could feel it, and tightened his arms around himself.

"I-I don't remember the nightmares," he said, shaking his head.

"No. You don't remember the accident Zeus was in either, do you?" Phoenix asked softly, treading carefully. This was different from Athena's locks. True, Apollo didn't think he killed a parent, but his memory was so close to the surface. It would only take a little bit of pushing. Phoenix could almost see the chain around Apollo's heart tightening though, trying to keep the memory hidden.

"I-it was on stage. A tragic accident… during a performance…" Apollo said softly. Phoenix knew they weren't memories. He was just parroting the same words he heard over and over since Thalassa walked back into his life.

"Yes. He was performing a dangerous stunt, the cornerstone of his act," Phoenix said softly, remembering the news clippings he read. "The Upside Down Chain Swaddle. The chains bro—"

"NOOOO!" Apollo suddenly screamed, as all five Psyche-locks shattered at the same time. Phoenix darted over to the young man as he grabbed his head and fell to his knees, terrified that he revealed too much, too fast. He knelt next to Apollo, wrapping his arms around him.

"Th-the pulley… it-it broke… D-Daddy… he fell… he hit his head…" Apollo was muttering as the memories of his two-year old self came rushing back, rocking slightly on his knees in Phoenix's arms. Phoenix was surprised at how young his voice suddenly sounded. "Mommy was crying… there was so much blood… so much… They took him away… there were so many wires…" Phoenix kept his arms around the young man, realizing the memories shifted to when Zeus was in the hospital. Seeing him like that must have traumatized the little boy just as much as seeing him fall did. "We stopped going to see Daddy… th-then… M-mommy left too…"

 _Even being left at the orphanage was hidden!?_ Phoenix thought, surprised at how much Apollo had repressed. Apollo stopped mumbling. His grip shifted from his head to Phoenix's hoodie, and he buried his face, letting out all of the pain he held for so long. Phoenix, ignoring the stiffness in his lower back and calves, rubbed Apollo's back soothingly, hopping he didn't just traumatize the young man forever.

The crying soon stopped. Apollo sat back on his heels, refusing to meet Phoenix's eye.

"Apollo… you're parents are okay. Both of them. And they're here now…" Phoenix said softly, reaching over and placing a hand on the young man's shoulder. Apollo nodded.

"Y-yes… I know…" he mumbled, and Phoenix was relieved to hear his voice hopeful, rather then broken. He smiled.

"Do you want me to… call them over?" he asked. Apollo shook his head, standing and mechanically shutting off the water as his sink started to overflow.

"N-no… I… I'm going… to go over there…" he mumbled. Phoenix nodded.

"Okay," he said, deciding to follow the young man, to make sure he'll be okay.

As the two left the apartment, Mrs. Jenkins hobbled over, catching Phoenix's sleeve.

"I heard a yell," she fretted. Phoenix winced slightly, remembering Apollo's cry when the locks broke.

"He uh… he just remembered some… some things," Phoenix explained lamely. Mrs. Jenkins smiled knowingly.

"And he's facing them?"

"Yes, he is."

"Good," Mrs. Jenkins smiled warmly. "He's such a good boy. I know he'll be okay. It's not just his voice that's strong."

Phoenix laughed at that.

"Yeah, that's definitely true," he agreed, before jogging after his protégé.

…

A/N: So… sorry if I seemed angsty or depressed, haha. Now that Apollo's facing those memories, his nightmares will stop, and he'll go back to being happy. YAY!


End file.
